LensRentals details its top ten favorite products from the past decade

Ten years have passed since our friends at LensRentals first launched as a small business operating out of a garage. The company has seen many changes over those years, both in its own operation and in the spheres of photography and videography, and it has highlighted some of those changes in a new blog post. The LensRentals team has detailed their top ten favorite products from the last decade.

'What we’ve found, is that there is no right piece of gear for everyone,' they say, 'and we all have varying tastes and expectations when it comes to gear.'

The products, which aren’t listed in any particular order, run the gamut from cameras to lenses and a few different accessories. Most notably, Canon products took four of the ten slots, with both the 5D Mark II and 5D Mark III making the list, as well as its EF 400mm F4 DO IS II and 11-24mm F4L lenses.

Pentax, Leica, Freefly, Profoto, Sony, and Sigma products fill out the remaining six slots, though as LensRentals notes: 'the photography and videography industries have changed faster than ever before, so some pieces of gear had to be left out on our list.' It’s a somewhat long read, but the LensRentals team takes the time to explain why each product earned it place on the list, and it's well worth giving it a look.

I find it difficult to understand the vitriol that directed towards one brand or another. Why people would be so biased against other brands is a mystery to me: if they were not good brands they would have no market. They may be different but that is the nature of an open market and to the best of my knowledge the brands that people direct their negativity towards do the naysayers no harm whatsoever. I am unaware of any brand that has seriously held back a photographer's performance: the challenge is in making the best of whatever equipment we have... as they say the bad workman blames his tools.

Frankly, I think we would all enjoy forum more if the conversations were positive, constructive and devoid of trolling. This is becoming a trait of the forum medium: people say things that they would probably never do if they had to stand up to others face-to-face.

Unfortunately, this is not what they claim.It is their current favorites list (and a rather predictable one for gear heads), not the last decade's one.The 5DmkII is the only gear which isn't a current product.

That is not what the article claims. It is just an unashamed subjective opinion. As this I read it. And I enjoyed it. Nothing wrong with subjective opinions. BTW apart from an Ixus I never owned a Canon and I have no intention of owning one.

I always rent lenses before I buy. Given the Sony rollout rate for the a7 series--I should have applied the same principle to my camera purchases. I lost on my a7, a7r and my beloved a99 and 5 Sony Zeiss lenses are losing value faster than a dead fish loses scales. LR's has proven to be a great resource to my own efforts. Their list is "their list". I read their blogs carefully. Their customer service is first class and would be the first item for discussion if I were to think of the top ten attributes I would attribute to their firm.

It must kill DPR to see no Nikons on this list. I admit I say that with some snark as you seem to be so Nikon-biased. But in fairness to Nikon I would have found a way to add the D800 on here, which was a game-changer for its time. Similarly, I would have removed the 5D3, which although better than the 5D2, did not have any of the 5D2's wow factor. Interesting article and thanks for the link.

Nikon D1 1999 was the real game changer, the same year or year before I was offered a Kodak for 180000 SEK at Photokina by Kodak, normal price 250000SEK .D1 was the camera which changed the face of the digital SLR market BUT this is more than 10 l years back, and what a fantastic advertisement for a certain company that rents out camera equipment in USA .

I agree for the advertisement. But it is deserved advertisement because their blog content often outperforms anything available from the large outlets, esp. when it comes to the optical performance of lenses.

Not surprise there. I rented my gears from them before. The renting behavior is very different from buying behavior. When you rent, you go for stuff you can't afford to own for the special occasion. You don't see as many portrait oriented lenses because wedding professionals can write the cost off on their tax return.

You also see a lot of Medium Format cameras, because let's face it..., they're expensive and you don't use them that often. It requires careful planning to shoot with one. Even as serious as a landscape photographer myself, only once a while I'd say, "I wish I had a medium format with me." Only one photo per trip requires a MF and MF landscape shots almost always require a tripod. So it's not a travel cam. Just rent the gears after you carefully planned your scout shots with a smaller format.

It's so much Canon gear because people like this. I would rent Canon or Nikon too, because I know I get quality.Who rents Equipment? - Pros, who already have got equipment and want special lenses or a backup body or a better body. Why take a Panasonic cam if you've got Canon lenses? Why take a sony lens if you've got a Canon body? Why take Olympus system if you are familiar with Canon or Nikon?

Interesting list and as a 5D3 user I am happy to see it in there. My list would include the 7D but then as an ex 7D user I recognise that could be my bias. I like that the 5D2 is in as it was a game changer. I do wonder at the omission of the Nikon 800D which I think is a great camera, but maybe it wasn't the game changer we thought when compared to the more recently released 5DS/R.

No surprise that Canon dominated the list.I won't be surprised either if someday I come here to find a big DPR announcement, all in capital letters, that says "CANON ACQUIRES NIKON FOR AN UNDISCLOSED AMOUNT"!!!

There was a time when graphic designers used to argue which was the better app, Adobe Illustrator or Macromedia Freehand. Later Adobe took over Macromedia and killed off Freehand. After that Illustrator prices went up as now it was the only game in town. It's in all photographers' interest to have both Canon and Nikon compete with each other, do well and survive.

@rrccad ok understood... @others, sorry for the provocation troll :D I forgot the smileys. Anyway, to be more serious, what says razadaz is quite true. Though the digital photography industry is quite complicated situation at this time, we need diversity. I'm far from knowing what those companies plan with their financial future (do they know themselves ?)... Sorry for the BS !Anyone here ?

I think that's the key to the list: it centers on what's valued most as rentals. That's why expensive stuff that's too rare to impact most of us is there and game-changers for most of us aren't. That's probably also why Canons figure so heavily: long-term highest market share in high-end equipment. Nothing wrong with the list in that light, although I think the only thing a list I'd make would have in common with it would be the A7RII....

Actually it doesn't say anything about rentals if you bothered to read the article. This is their staff's opinion on the most significant photographic and videographic announcements of the last ten years.

It doesn't have to say anything about rentals -- that's the context. It's rather like asking folks who run wineries what the 10 most important beverages are: you shouldn't be too surprised that no beers, let alone coke nor pepsi, made the list.

I'm sorry but the level of hurt feelings on display in these comments from people who are so desperate to have their decisions validated by strangers is simply sad and pathetic. These are nothing but opinions of people. That's it. No different than when I say I like X brand of hot sauce on my food and the guy at the next table like his brand. My goodness some people need to grow up. To those saying "it's not unbiased" blah blah. It's not supposed to be unbiased. They're not journalists. This is their opinion.

Welcome to DPReview. If you criticize anything, the crybabies will assail you with infantile claims that you work for a competitor, or you don't own a camera, or you don't know what you're doing, or essentially "you're holding it wrong."

Cognitive dissonance at its finest. People paid a lot for something, and how dare you come in with opinions or even FACTS that call their decision into question? KILL THE MESSENGER!

@tjwaggoner - It looks like you have hurt feelings. The opinions of the people that formed the list have somewhat more value than the person on the street. The rent and understand the equipment better than the average person. They know demand by what was rented, therefore they know the best by usage.You need to re-read the reasons the gear was chosen in the first place(groundbreaking and innovative at the time).

@myreality I think you misunderstood what I meant. I am not hurt by this. Not at all. I couldn't care less what anyone prefers or thinks is groundbreaking. If groundbreaking or "game changing" was in fact criteria for selection then I think they missed badly by not including the iPhone. But again that just my thoughts. Not sure why you say that my feelings would be hurt here. I simply made a comment about the amount of people who are expressing actual anger and confusion that their choices weren't validated by the folks at LensRentals. That's sad and pathetic as I said before. And I did read the article. I'm a long time reader of LensRentals blog.

If you post your top ten food that you like to eat, I'm pretty sure people here would criticize you and tell you that you, you should eat these instead. I would love to imagine what the world would be like if the behaviors here on these anonymous forums were acted out in real life. Imagine introducing your wife to a DPR member in real life, they would say, well, I would have picked a different woman for you. Don't you realize that she's inferior in the following twenty dimensions? blah blah blah... I can't believe that you married her. I feel sorry for you.

I think when you buy photo gear you must first be submitted to a background check by the brand loyalty police to make sure that you've never betrayed the brand beforehand and that you will swear on your first born, your retirement 401K fund, your mortgage that you will remain faithful to the brand "So help you God (the Christian one)". Failure to defend the brand with your every breath will doom your soul to forever carry a large view camera up a steep hill without film.

I have to say.. the 11-24 is one of the few lenses I have rented in the past year. I don't shoot that wide often enough to warrant buying the lens right now, but if that changes, certainly will. Amazing piece of glass.

Favorite products for reasons stated in the text. It seams like many of the response posts are from people who did not read all of the text. But that does not surprise me because some people on this forum just like to read short sentences and look at pictures.

How can we respect people's insight and perspective if they don't think our brand is the best? You are fair, balanced, insightful if you agree with me. You are biased, delusional and stupid if you disagree with me.

The most rented gear is CanonThis is an ad not an evaluationIt doesn't say anything about technical development or quality of the gear.Canon has succeded here But just becauce it's the most rented doesn't make it good

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